Pitching dominates in win over Smokies

By Aaron Morse

Amaury Rivas went six strong innings as the Huntsville Stars (6-8, 39-45) took the lead early and never looked back in a 3-1 victory over the Tennessee Smokies (8-6, 50-33) Monday night.

Brett Lawrie started the game the right way with a double to left that Tony Campana misplayed, allowing Lawrie to advance to third. After Caleb Gindl walked, Zelous Wheeler grounded out to second, scoring Lawrie and advancing Gindl to second. For Wheeler, it’s his 40th RBI of the season. With two away, Taylor Green crushed the second double of the inning for the Stars, scoring Gindl and giving them a 2-0 edge against Smokies’ starter Chris Carpenter (6-4).

Rivas (8-5) struggled a bit with his control in the bottom of the frame. With one out he walked Brett Jackson and hit Josh Vitters with a pitch. Blake Lalli made him pay as he singled home Jackson to make the score 2-1.

To say Rivas settled down would be an understatement as he subdued the hard-hitting Smokies for his six innings of work. He surrendered the lone run on three hits, walked three and struck-out three as well.

The Stars tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh against reliever Marcos Mateo. Drew Anderson led-off with a single to left. One out later Steffan Wilson reached on a throwing error by Smokies’ shortstop Marwin Gonzalez. Lee Haydel singled to load the bases and Dayton Buller came up big with a RBI base knock to extend the lead to 3-1. That’s all they would get though as pinch hitter Andy Machado struck-out and Brett Lawrie was robbed of a base hit by Josh Vitters for the final out of the inning.

Donovan Hand retired all six batters he faced as he tossed a scoreless seventh and eighth.

Jim Henderson worked a scoreless ninth for his fourth save of the year.

The Stars look to win the three-game series Tuesday as they play a morning game so set your alarms as first pitch is at 11:00 am central time. You can tune in only on www.huntsvillestars.com beginning at 10:45 am with the Window World Pre-Game Report. Josh Butler (1-4, 3.93 ERA) will be on the mound.